Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Well, it's been spring for a while, but Cleveland is just recently entering into the warm-weather season with sunshine, pleasant winds, and temperatures in the sixties and seventies. It means we've been taking lunches outside, going for afternoon walks around the building on breaks, and of course, that we've been receiving a greater number of wedding invitations.

As a proofreader, I get to look closely at orders in the proofing stage, checking everything from the accuracy of what we've done with the information provided to us on the order form to the availability of papers (R.I.P. those shades that have been discontinued) and the feasibility of some of the most customized instructions we've been happy to provide for you. I love my job. And, maybe one of the most fun and validating parts of proofreading orders is verifying the URLs on information cards.

It's fun for us to look at wedding websites, partly because our wedding customers seem to be some of the cutest, most in-love folks ever to order custom stationery, and partly because it's very neat to see the faces behind the names of the wonderful people who take the time to get creative with our product and make it their own. When the primary part of your job is studying text and design close-up, every day, it's a breath of fresh air to widen our view and remember that it's more than just paper and ink. It's a really cool, important milestone in people's lives. Happy spring, everyone!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Today's hot card comes to us from Embrey Papers, one of our outposts in Pacific Time. The design is from the second volume of our Bar/Bat Mitzvah catalog, and the custom-color flowers were chosen by the client. (Please forgive the jankity picture; Rob is inexplicably on photo duty.)

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Just to let you know, we will be closed next Friday, April 18th. There will be no shipment of orders on that day. We will still accept orders, and they will be processed in the order which we received them on Monday the 21st. Thanks very much for your consideration!

Friday, April 4, 2008

At work, when you talk on the phone every day to a person you’ve never met, you tend to get curious about what that person is like in real life. Well, maybe you don’t, but we here at Luscious Verde are a specific breed of character. Perhaps it’s the drinking water from the pristine Cuyahoga River. Perhaps it’s the fact that we’re obsessed with Project Runway. Or, probably, it’s because we’re all a little bit weird. Not in a bad way, mind you, but it takes a specific kind of person to deal with the highs and lows of custom stationery.

And we realized, hey, we talk to people every day who we’ve never met, and who are fans of our work. But just talking to them isn’t enough. We’re curious about their trials and tribulations, their outlook on life, and their favorite alcoholic beverage. So we’ve decided to feature, every few weeks or so, a retailer of our products that we want to get to know a little better. Behold the first entry into our illustrious Retailer Spotlight: Allison from the Petite Paperie in Mill Valley, in beautiful Marin County, California.

Name: Allison Lodish

Where were you born and raised? The city by the bay – San Francisco, CA!

When did you start in custom stationery? At the young age of 17.

For God’s sake, why? It’s a sickness – I love a party. Oh, and paper, of course!

Family? Pets? Family you wish were pets? Husband Max, daughters Avery (7) and Sylvie (5), and dogs Bella and Mabel.

Not to toot our own horn, but what’s your favorite Luscious Verde design? Really? How can I choose?

Other than being awesome at stationery, what else are you really good at? Any hidden talents? Well, if you must know, in my former life I used to be an actress/singer (hard to believe, I know). I can still carry a decent tune.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

For as long as she can remember, Liz (our operations manager) has had a dream. Now this was no ordinary dream. Liz did not wish for wealth, fame, or a date with Colin Farrell (unless he’s available, then please, give him her number). Little Elizabeth Adrienne’s big dream was to brew a steaming pot of coffee not with water, but with . . . milk. I kid you not. There’s no need to worry with creamer if you’re already drinking a creamy pot of milk coffee . . . or so says Liz! So today, at Luscious Verde, everyone pulled together to make this a dream come true. However, we aren’t the type of folks to just jump right into something without devising a highly detailed plan. We wanted to go about this in a scientific way. Thinking back to the Scientific Method learned in high school, we realized we needed to control the variables, figure out a hypothesis, come up with a detailed plan of action, and lastly, wear protective gear:

1. We discovered the boiling point of milk is, according to the great Internets, higher than that of water (Melissa and Jason, I think this means it won’t scald, but nice watching out!)2. Jaclyn suggested that skim milk might be the best way to go on our first attempt.3. Luckily, milk does flow through a standard coffee filter (avoiding coagulation? CHECK!)4. In the event of fire, keep extinguisher close. (PASS: Pull, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep . . . that’s what we learned from the fire department in extinguisher training)5. In the event of major foaming or spillage, keep paper towels close.6. Be sure to notify all company vegan’s that our coffee pot may no longer be considered a vegan option. (sorry Tony)

Included here is our photo diary of the occurrence:

Look how happy she is?! Now you understand why we had to carry out this plan despite all the naysayers.

So after Liz hit the magic "start" button on the coffee pot, we all waited with bated breath to see if the coffee pot would explode right before our eyes. It didn't. But slowly, the gurgling steeping sound began. Liz was giddy with excitement. And then the first drips started to fall. Victorious cheers were heard throughout the building! "It's working! And it looks like chocolate milk!" The coffee pot began to fill:

Watching the coffee pot fill with "chocolate milk" colored milk coffee was, as you can imagine, about as exciting as watching C-SPAN. As a result, the crowd slowly dispersed. Even Liz strayed away from the kitchen (she has a short attention span). Periodically Rob, Liz or I would check the progress of the pot. After a few moments, we realized that perhaps we should check the filter. If you notice from the above photo diary, Liz poured a half a pot of milk into the reservoir. Our pot was filling very slowly and we began to worry. We peeked under the lid to see what the hold up was:

Uhhohhh . . . serious back up problems. We turned the pot off hoping the milk would filter through. At this point we had about two inches of milk coffee. We gave it another five minutes and decided that two and a half inches of beverage would just have to suffice. Everyone could have a sip out of the communal mug. Liz emptied the filter basket into the trash and poured a steaming cup of milk coffee. Then she tasted it . . . the moment we'd all been waiting for. "This is not nearly as delicious as I had hoped," she said with disappointment. "It's like pretty bad European coffee." So of course the rest of us had to taste it (except for Tony because he's vegan!), and we all agreed. Kind of gross.

That was the anticlimactic ending to our highly anticipated experiment. Or so we thought . . . Around 8:30 this morning, everyone started giving sideways glances across the office in an effort to reveal the origin of the pretty funky smell that was wafting through the air. It wasn't Rob. He appeared freshly showered. What could it be? And then Kelly discovered that it was the coffee pot. Although it had been cleaned the evening before and a new pot of regular coffee brewed, there was a pretty offensive odor. And Rob was already on his second cup. So this afternoon Luscious Verde will be retiring the old coffee maker for a brand new one. Services will be held out back around 5:00pm. Donations may be made to the "coffee fund" for future experiments in custom coffee brewing.

Liz would like to thank everyone involved for their efforts in making her dreams come true. And again, if anyone knows Colin Farrell, please give him her number.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

It truly pains me to write these words, but as of 12:01 a.m. today, Luscious Verde is closing our doors forever. All current orders will be fulfilled, but we will not be accepting any new orders. In a dramatic change of heart, Chris and Wendy, the owners of Luscious Verde, have decided to stop making custom, one-of-a-kind stationery, and have decided to focus on making custom, one-of-a-kind handmade burritos. It will be a great learning experience: rice, beans and tortillas are probably a lot different than beautiful paper and accoutrements. Anyhow, please come see us at our new location in Napoleon, Ohio – we should have everything together just in time for the Henry County Fair, held August 8-14. See you on the Tilt-O-Whirl!